By Michael John Donohue
_
A person wholly dependent upon the government for his or her very survival cannot possible be said to be free. Freedom is the ultimate human right. The denial of Freedom to human beings throughout history has inevitably led to uprising, conflict and bloodshed. We are truly endowed by our Creator with not only the right to Liberty, but a thirst for it.
Imagine that you are God and you are contemplating the Creation. You, as a just and caring God, would create a people who were free even from God. Freedom is encoded in the DNA of every human being. Dr. King said the arc of history bends toward Justice, but it can only reach Justice if it bends first toward Freedom. As outlined in Part One of this piece, the arc of the history of the Democratic Party hardly bends at all away from the enforced segregation of African-Americans.
–
Now, with these Americans, in large measure, concentrated in failing urban centers and a neo-fascist, Left-wing element of the Democratic Party terrorizing and destroying their neighborhoods, the historically violent enforcement of these segregationist policies continues. Black people are subjected to an incessant drum beat of segregationist propaganda designed to convince them that there are not now and never will be any good white people and that any deviation from this orthodoxy is betrayal of the community. Yes, even to the point of the Democrat candidate for President of the United States, Joe Biden, telling an African-American man, “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.” We now live in an America where the standard bearer for the Democratic Party professes the power to strip an African-American of his or her blackness based on the way he or she casts a vote. They have pulled the arc far away from Freedom and Justice for African-Americans.
But, as discussed in Part One, we as a Nation have made extraordinary strides in removing segregation as a matter of law and official governmental policy. The millions of success stories among Americans of African descent over the past fifty years is a testament to the fact that America as a country has provided a path to prosperity for many who possess the creativity, perseverance and drive to achieve it. The election of Barack Obama, although his African roots proceed from the African continent and not slaves in the South, was supposed to be a testament to how far American had come. So, how is it that millions of African-Americans remain trapped in the cycle of poverty and dependence nearly half a century after the passage of the Civil Rights Act? The answer is economic segregation.
Legal segregation having been eliminated, the manifestos of the leaders of Black Lives Matter and Antifa and continuing economic segregationist principals have made their way into the official platform of the Democratic Party. The term “Identity Politics” is code for “segregation.” Their focus on the evil of “big corporations” is meant to demonizes those who would invest in black communities and work to provide good jobs. This demonization is critical to the enforcement of economic segregation’s grip on the African-American community.
And Donald Trump was well on his way to breaking that grip. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, the unemployment rate for African-Americans was at an historic low. That should sink in. The lowest African-American unemployment rate in America. Ever. African-American earnings had increased by 3.8%, ahead of the 3.2% over the same period for whites. Nearly $600 billion of net worth had been added to those in the bottom 50% of the economy. 2.5 million Americans rose above the poverty line who had been below it before the Trump economy took shape and nearly 7 million Americans moved off the food stamp rolls. Opportunity Zones created by the Trump administration began to take root and incubate economic vitality in urban opportunity deserts. Even in the wake of the pandemic, the Trump economy surged back to life as America began to reopen and learn how to live in the time of Covid-19.
The Left was panicked about Trump’s progress even while it was openly saying through Democrat Governors and members of Congress that it intended to use the Covid crisis to tear down the Trump economy. New promises of even greater government gifts to communities of color followed. And then George Floyd was killed. The tragedy was real. The death horrific. Legitimate protests were broadly supported by Americans. The American criminal justice system worked. The officers involved were charged with murder. But what is happening now was never about George Floyd, it was and remains about economic segregation. Only a continuously dependent, compliant and economically segregated African-American community is useful to the Democratic Party.
This economic segregation is not limited to urban areas. For over four years I was a New Jersey Superior Court Judge. I sat for most of that time in the Criminal court. The reality of economic segregation hit me right between the eyes every day. We are economic creatures. Remember when you were in kindergarten and you negotiated to trade your tunafish sandwich for a PB&J? You even threw in a Tastykake Krimpet because you were so sick of tunafish. There is a kindergarten lunchtime economy created by five-year olds. Proof that human beings will engage in economic activity no matter what the conditions of their situation. When people are segregated from the local, state, national and international economies, they will make their own economies. The drug trade, human trafficking, individual prostitution, numbers games, sales of untaxed cigarettes, unlicensed gambling, theft and sale of personal property, and the list goes on. These are the so-called black market economies. The term drips with bitter irony. Segregated out of the mainstream economy by hundreds of years of various forms of legal and then forced ideological separation, many African-Americans follow the innate economic impulse nonetheless. In the end, it led scores of them to my courtroom where they would have to pay for their illicit economic crimes. It is a broken system. Here locally, this phenomenon is driven more by the limitations of an almost purely seasonal economy then by the forces of economic segregation, but there is no doubt it still plays some role.
I quickly came to the conclusion that it was not the Democratic Party who had failed these people, it was the Republican Party. Not because of racism, but because of our failure to bravely fight to lead so many of our African-American brothers and sisters out of these illegal subeconomies and into real economic freedom.
Trump was on the verge of a lasting effort to break the back of economic segregation. While Covid and riots fomented by Democratic groups have propped-up economic segregation in many parts of the country, the playbook to achieve economic desegregation is written. The prospect of finally delivering the economic promise of America to communities of color to an extent never seen before is simmering. This is why the Left is so desperate. This is why Democratic Mayors are turning their cities over to well organized and well financed neo-fascist mobs. Because the formula for bringing an end to dependency is with us now. Much like the words, “All men are created equal” could not be resisted once written and would eventually lead to freedom from tyranny and oppression for billions of human beings over the course of two centuries, the reality that the irresistible force of the American economy can be focused on struggling communities in order to lift them out of the illicit subeconomies they have been forced to create, is alive in the world. While the Left struggles to kill this liberating ideal, Republicans must keep up the pressure. We must not fail this time. We will betray the roots of our Party and fail our abolitionist and federalist ancestors if we give up now.
The path forward is easy in concept but extraordinarily hard in application. We must go into the cities. We must purchase buildings and other property. We must finance the creation of small businesses and give them to the people of these communities. Yes, finance them and give them. We must engage in the Conservative redistribution of wealth in the form of financing and investment for the creation of long-lasting and well-paying jobs by these small businesses. We must make free market capitalism an invasive species in these areas for the benefit of local populations. Minority-owned, minority-run and minority-employed businesses must pop-up and spread like wildflowers.
These new enterprises of economic desegregation must be protected as they grow. The reason we have food deserts and zero minority-owned business in so many areas of our country is because Democratic leadership has refused to provide protection from the forces that perpetuate and profit from black-market economies. The streets are allowed to be lawless and businesses are driven out. To protect these fledging, legitimate economies we will need Federal law enforcement. The history of segregation is replete with instances where it was necessary to bring Federal law enforcement to bear. The Civil War itself was a Federal law enforcement action where the resilience and legality of the Union and the illegality of slavery were vindicated by Federal troops, tens of thousand of whom gave their lives in the effort. The destruction of the Ku Klux Klan as an effective terror wing of the Democratic Party was effectuated by Federal law enforcement. When Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner, two white and one black Civil Rights volunteers, were murdered in the early 1960’s in Philadelphia, Mississippi, the Democrat officials of that town did all they could to cover up the crimes. Federal agents by the score flooded in and brought the murderers to justice. When Democratic Governors in Southern States refused to integrate schools and universities in the 1950’s and 60’s, Presidents sent Federalized troops to force them to allow African-Americans to attend. This is why you now see a concerted effort by Democrat elected officials and their prostituted media to demonize Federal law enforcement officers attempting to restore peace in African-American communities.
Ending economic segregation will require Federal ownership of the real estate upon which these new economies are built. With Federal ownership comes Federal law enforcement protection. The law clearly allows Federal law enforcement to protect Federal property. Federally-owned buildings full of minority-owned, private, small businesses will be the key to economic desegregation. Protected from the whims of Democratic elected officials, these new economies will have the protection they need to advance. To thrive. To create well-paying jobs for members of the community. As these businesses grow so too will peace and freedom thrive in these areas. A young African-American girl born in such a thriving community will not, as Dr. King lamented, have “clouds on her emotional horizon.” Instead, she will have a much broader selection of economic opportunities to choose from. She will be free to pursue happiness. Breaking the grip of economic segregation will bend the arc of history finally toward the Freedom and Justice that these communities deserve and will create the path towards a fully integrated and thriving America. The foundation for “Identity Politics” will be eliminated as those demonized as oppressors become the liberators of the oppressed. Social integration will advance as urban communities lose their aura of dangerousness and people of all colors engage together in commerce and mutual interests. And, most importantly, the number of Americans wholly dependent on the government for their very survival will be dramatically reduced.
The President should start today and bring condemnation proceedings in court to take possession of blighted urban areas. Bulldoze the detritus of years of Democrat neglect and construct store fronts and venues for industry. Give these spaces rent-free to minority entrepreneurs and bring the vast wealth of the nation into them to finance the creation of new, urban-centered, minority-owned small businesses. New, legitimate economies will thrive, jobs will flourish and the darkness of economic segregation will succumb to the light of opportunity.
We are now engaged in this great Civil War. It is a war not only for the future of the African-American community but for all of our futures. It is a war against those on the Left who fight to maintain economic segregation and the dogma that our fellow citizens cannot take care of themselves. It is a war for the Dream. For the principal that a colorblind society is better than one that incessantly and neurotically focuses on our differences. And it is a war that must be won in this generation. For if it is lost now, America may never return to the promise of its founding on the pillars of life, liberty and happiness.
_
MIKE DONOHUE is a Jersey Shore native, former Superior Court judge, and current Chairman of the Cape May County GOP.
